Categories
Machine Shop

3D Printing to Optimize Bike Parts

Renishaw Optimized 3D Printed BikeThe folks over at Renishaw, who have largely been known for metrology devices like probes and the like, are also big into 3D printing. They have published a press release detailing a really cool success story using their 3D printing capabilities. Their software used to allowed them to take an aluminum bike part, optimize it in titanium, and create a 33% lighter but much stronger version. This was achieved by using computer modeling to figure out the ideal shape to make the part, leaving out everything that was unnecessary. Read the entire release here.

Categories
Machine Shop

5-axis DESKTOP Cnc!

There’s a startup company in Boszeman, MT working out the bugs on what will probably be the first desktop 5-axis CNC mill! That should bring some serious power to hobbyists and small shops everywhere! I may just have to open a shop on my patio.

Categories
Machine Shop TECH NEWS

Cool GoPro CNC Machining Video

I came across this really cool cnc machining video on PracticalMachinist.com.

There are some great shots taken with a GoPro camera mounted in a tool holder. There are interior machining shots, footage of the inside of the tool magazine, and all sorts of stuff a machine shop geek would love. I should point out that I had nothing to do with this video; it was shot in a large CNC shop in the Portland area. It looks like they do some great work!

Categories
Machine Shop

MILLING ON CHEVALIER

VID 00018-20100711-1313

Categories
Featured Machine Shop

USING A FORM TOOL ON THE LATHE

IMG00024-20110219-1625
PART TURNED ON LATHE WITH FORM TOOL

I needed to turn some custom parts with a hose barb on one end. This wouldn’t be very hard on a CNC lathe, but I only had a manual lathe. To make a custom shape like this, a form tool is used. This isn’t a technique I invented, obviously. To get my part shape, I had a custom form tool cut by a wire EDM machine at another shop.

To use the tool, I roughed the form close and then plunged the tool in to finish the barb form. It made quite a lot of noise, which might have meant the tool was over center a bit. It was a little hard to set the height. I got the parts done, none the less.

CUSTOM HOSE BARB PARTS
CUSTOM HOSE BARB PARTS